SPARKS, Nev. -- Donald Trump softened his tone on marijuana legalization on Thursday, saying at a political rally that states should be allowed to legalize marijuana if they chose to do so. Trump reaffirmed that he supports making medical marijuana available to patients who are very sick.

"In terms of marijuana and legalization, I think that should be a state issue, state-by-state," Trump said while taking a handful of questions during a political rally at a casino outside Reno on Thursday afternoon.

Regulating products with a marijuana or coca base compliments another bill currently being debated in congress to legalize medical marijuana.

Colombia is hoping to get one step further in the legalization of medical marijuana, with the Health Ministry pushing to legalize all products that contain the narcotic as its base.

Health Minister Alejandro Gaviria said Wednesday that the ministry will expediting a decree that will regulate those medical products that contain marijuana, coca, and poppy as a base. The regulations will allow these substances to be legally cultivated, produced and commercialized under controlled conditions.

OTTAWA COUNTY, MI – An attorney claims prosecutors pressured state police crime labs to change the way THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, is reported in an effort to circumvent Michigan's medical marijuana law.

Michael Komorn alleges scientists were told to report an unknown origin for THC contained in oil, wax or perhaps a brownie if no visible plant material was present. The THC would then be declared a synthetic substance rather than marijuana – turning a misdemeanor pot charge to a two-year felony.

Two candidates nodded to liberalizing standards about marijuana in the United States on Wednesday—one expected, one a little more surprising. In the latter case, Senator Ted Cruz offered, during the GOP debate, to buy CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla “some famous Colorado brownies.”

Thousands of cannabis plants are sprouting — and they have been since July — inside a nondescript warehouse off Andalusia Road in Rock Island.

Green Thumb Industries, or GTI, a Chicago-based medical pot company, won rights to operate a Rock Island cultivation center in February. It became the first facility this summer to earn the state’s OK to grow the plant.

“We got through all the inspections and requirements and now we’re ready to go,” Ben Kovler, GTI's CEO, said. “It’s been a long journey, but our wait pales in comparison to the wait patients have had to endure.”

But that wait may soon be over, as well.

State officials said Thursday that Illinois will begin its first medical marijuana sales within the next two weeks.

Anslow was at the head of a major drugs ring, which sold and distributed cocaine and cannabis across the West Midlands.

The 35-year-old became Britain’s most wanted man when he was violently and dramatically sprung from a prison van outside HMP Hewell near Redditch to Stafford Crown Court.

He then went on the run to Northern Cyprus.

While still at large, Anslow, of St Mark's Road, Tipton, was found guilty of conspiracy to supply cocaine and cannabis and sentenced to 22 years behind bars in September 2012.

Yesterday (THURS) he challenged his convictions at London's Criminal Appeal Court, with his lawyers arguing the trial should not have been held in his absence and that the judge misdirected the jury.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) --

A San Francisco dentist is accused of an interstate pot operation.

Jerome Weitz, D.D.S., runs a dental practice in the city's Mission District. Prosecutors say he was trafficking marijuana from San Francisco all the way to New York.

No one, including the dentists who work at the office, told ABC7 News they had any idea the man who cuts their checks is behind bars. They also didn't know their boss' son got arrested for illegally selling medical marijuana earlier this year. Prosecutors are saying this is a case of like father, like son.

On his YouTube page Jerome Weitz is the friendly dentist his patients have known for 30 years at his Mission Street business.

Almost a thousand plants were confiscated from chalets in Benifato and La Nucía

A UK national and a Belgian have been arrested by the Policía Nacional following the confiscation of almost a thousand marijuana plants from two chalets in Benifato and La Nucía, in the Marina Baja area of the province of Alicante, along with sophisticated watering, ventilation and heating systems. 

The British woman, aged 44, and the Belgian man (61) have both been released on bail: neither has a previous record of any similar offences. 

The appeal in the case against Doede De Jong on October 15 has the potential to achieve a sensible government policy on the 'paradox of the backdoor'.

he appeal in the case against Doede De Jong on October 15 will be submitted to the court of Leeuwarden (Netherlands) and has the potential to achieve a sensible government policy on the ‘paradox of the backdoor’, according to Dutch legalization NGO VOC Nederland.

UPDATE 29th of October, 2015: In the verdict against Doede de Jong the court ruled guilty, but no punishment. Case not finished. For more (in Dutch), visit the VOC Nederland website.